Fairbairn wants to focus on schizoid mental processes, which exist on a spectrum, schizophrenia existing at one extreme. He wants to focus on schizoid processes for a number of reasons, one of them being that these processes are experienced by most patients, even those considered non-schizoid — e.g., patients described as hysterical, obsessional, and phobic individuals. The “fundamental schizoid phenomenon is the presence of splits in the ego,” a feature shared by all people. (Although theoretically, someone “whose development had been optimum” might not have such splits.) At the most extreme level, a split in one’s ego results in depersonalization or derealization; at a less extreme level, a split can result in one feeling artificial or emotionally disconnected from friends. Psychoanalysis have long believed that schizoid processes are caused by a fixation in the early oral stage. The infant at this stage focuses on taking (over giving), which comes in the forms of incorporation and ...
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